Hello! New Savage XL Octane owner in Iceland!

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Hilmaar

Hilmaar

Member
Messages
17
Location
Iceland
Hello! I'm hopefully getting my Savage back from the shop (I bought it malfunctioning :( ), and since it's snowing in Iceland, I was hoping I could take it out in the snow. I'm just wondering if I need to take any precautions before taking it out in the snow? How water"proof" is it? It's obviously going to get quite wet in the snow.

Thanks in advance for any helpful answers :)

A view out of my window as I post this:
933uT7l.png
 
Welcome to the site hilmaar! Looks like the view I have as well.

None of the electronics will be water proof. The best way to make them water resistant is to stick them in a balloon and zip tie the end. Even then I wouldn't recommend submerging it. In the cold it is best to preheat the engine before running it. Also it helps to wrap something for insulation around the engine head to help it stay warm.
 
Hello Ghost, thanks. What would I wrap around the engine head? Would a rag with a balloon over it do the trick? How hot does it get?
 
Hilmaar said:
Hello Ghost, thanks. What would I wrap around the engine head? Would a rag with a balloon over it do the trick? How hot does it get?
Click to expand...


Alot of people wrap their cooling heads with socks.....haha. I'm not sure how hot the Octane engine's running temp is. I know nitro engines tend to run between 220-270F.
 
Sorry, I just realized your name isn't Ghost. It's X. :D

quick follow up question, I don't have an engine heater or whatever, nor do I have a heatgun. How important is it to pre-heat the engine head?
 
Hilmaar said:
Sorry, I just realized your name isn't Ghost. It's X. :D

quick follow up question, I don't have an engine heater or whatever, nor do I have a heatgun. How important is it to pre-heat the engine head?
Click to expand...


No worries, common mistake around here.

Do you have a hair dryer (I ask this knowing you are male, but hopefully someone in your house has one...haha)? If you do, just use that to warm it up. It takes a little longer, but it works.
 
Hilmaar said:
Oh cool. Yeah I got one of thems. Thank you. :)
Click to expand...


Also, not sure where you store your Savage, but it helps if you can bring it indoors long enough for it to warm up before you run it.
 
Francis, what happened? Can you elaborate? I believe that I have broken it in properly, I've done about 3 or 4 tanks of fuel.

X, I store my Savage in my garage, but I can't run it in the garage. It's kinda a part of my house, no-one wants the exhaust smells :p.
But of course, the engine will be at around 25°c in my garage, before starting it up. I should still heat it with a hairdryer for a minute before taking it out?

Thanks guys, really cool community here. :)

<--- RC noob :p
 
Oh, I thought you broke it somehow while breaking it in, in the cold. Sorry for that misunderstanding. You can't just adjust the needles accordingly? (I know you're not supposed to during break in, but just to compensate for the colder temperatures, you could make it a bit more rich?).
 
francis Labarbara said:
Mine has only had 1 tank through a new engine. Cold air causes an engine to run leaner. I am waiting for the temps to get over 10 before running it again.
Click to expand...

Colder air charge will actually hold more fuel, thus making the :ercm: run richer, thats why all the 1/1 performance guys install a cold air system on their cars to make the most of power and performance, I agree with not running any of the R/C stuff in freezing weather tho the engine will probably not get to a high enough temp to run correctly, the cold actually makes plastics much more breakable so thats always a consideration...
 
Thats true on a FI system. With a carb you have to maually correct the mixture. Denser air has to have more gas added to it.
 
Hilmaar said:
X, I store my Savage in my garage, but I can't run it in the garage. It's kinda a part of my house, no-one wants the exhaust smells :p.
But of course, the engine will be at around 25°c in my garage, before starting it up. I should still heat it with a hairdryer for a minute before taking it out?
Click to expand...


I think perhaps you misunderstood me. I didn't say to run the truck inside. I said you could bring the truck inside to warm it up BEFORE running it. That being said, if your garage is 25C and that's where you store it then you shouldn't need to pre-heat it.
 
Hello! I am back with another question since I've got my octane back and it's snowing again:

epj1O8d.png


I'm just about to go and buy some balloons for the electrics as you recommended, but then I thought of the steering servo, which is if I am not mistaken at the bottom of the truck. Is this waterproof out of the box? If it's not, and it shorts out due to water (molten snow), the rest of the truck will be fine, won't it? And i'll just have to order a new (water proof ;D) servo, correct?

Thank all of you here for great 'service' :)

Edit: Just wondering, why does your forum proxy images posted? o_O
 
What behavior will I experience when my battery is out? Will it start for a second and then die again?
Also, the steering servo is waterproof if someone is wondering. :)
 
Are you running different diameter tires in the front than the back or are you in the middle of a change over?

As the vehicle is 4WD, the tire diameter needs to be the same, in case you were not aware.
 
Huh. I broke a rim, and I wanted some shovel tires, and those were the ones available at my local (only one in iceland) rc shop. I could re-glue the stock tires to the new rims though. Does the diameter difference have much of an effect? It does look kind of silly :p

Thanks for pointing that out.
 
Yes it will have a substantial difference, those smaller tires will spin faster than the rear and cause handling troubles at the very least....
 
Jam Racing 1 said:
Yes it will have a substantial difference, those smaller tires will spin faster than the rear and cause handling troubles at the very least....
Click to expand...
Okay, thanks. :)

I'm having trouble waterproofing my electronics, are there any videos out there that show this being done? I can't seem to find any.
If I were to put all of the electronics in a balloon (which I don't see how I would do, it would probably be easier with something like a condom :p ), there are two wires coming out of the electrical box, and then two wires that go up to the lid of the electrical box for the switches of both batteries. Also what I think is the receiver is stuck in the box and I'll have to remove that to get all of the electronics in a balloon.
 
Scratch that, balloons worked perfectly. Each battery is in a separate balloon, the ignition system thing is in one and i bundled all the connectors into another one and taped that together with electrical tape for easier balloon removal for charging.

I have another issue ... seems like I just cannot get this truck running. This is my first RC and I'm a total noob at this stuff, if I would've known I would've probably bought the flux :banghead:. I've restored all needles to their factory setting (high speed needle is too rich, at least in the negative temps). Now when I pull the pull-start it revs up for about a quarter of a second and then shuts down again. When I took it out the first time today I got it running, but it sounded hesitant and when I wasn't accelerating it sounded like it was about to shut down, like it had the hiccups. But I took it down the street and drove it flat out back up, and as soon as it got to some high revs it choked, which means it's too rich isn't it? So I leaned the high speed needle and then it wouldn't start, as I described above. So I decided to factory reset the needles (I haven't touched the low-speed needle as every guide from HPI says not to, but I reset it as well). Still does the same thing when I try starting it. I've videotaped it for better clarity of what I am saying, English isn't my first language so I'm having a hard time trying to properly explain.

Does anyone know what's up with this?

 
Have you tried opening the idle up a bit ? everything I have read says the octane is a long break in and the needles are very coarse thread so minute adjustments are required when tuning it.....
 
Jam Racing 1 said:
Have you tried opening the idle up a bit ? everything I have read says the octane is a long break in and the needles are very coarse thread so minute adjustments are required when tuning it.....
Click to expand...
What do you mean by opening it up? Screwing it out (CCW) so it runs lower rpm? Wouldn't that just kill it faster? I will try it later, thank you. :)
 
I mean to increase the idle opening a bit so it will idle a bit faster and add a bit more air to the idle mixture....
 
It not a slide carb but it does have an idle screw. I ran mine when it was 50 last week and I had to richen the LSN just a tiny bit, maybe a 1/2 hour to get it to go. It never did clear out on the top end though. Sounded like a ruptured chainsaw.
 
Last edited:
Jam Racing 1 said:
I mean to increase the idle opening a bit so it will idle a bit faster and add a bit more air to the idle mixture....
Click to expand...
Yeah I had my controller's throttle trim turned up a bit for that exact reason. So I don't think the idle screw doing the same thing will help, but I will try none the less.
francis Labarbara said:
It not a slide carb but it does have an idle screw. I ran mine when it was 50 last week and I had to richen the LSN just a tiny bit, maybe a 1/2 hour to get it to go. It never did clear out on the top end though. Sounded like a ruptured chainsaw.
Click to expand...
We're told not to touch that needle, but I'll give it a go. Did it start up and die like mine does (I posted a video earlier)? Thanks for your input guys.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 250 (members: 1, guests: 249)
Back
Top